Hardware display card



Nov. 19, 1957 v R. c. SEYFORTHI 2,813,625

HARDWARE DISPLAY cARD Filed Nov. 1, 1956 I INVENTORQ- ROME ca /027 M Q MAA RM: Y6.

United States Patent HARDWARE DISPLAY CARD Rome C. Seyforth, Shelby, Ohio, assignor to The Shelby Meta]:l Products Company, Shelby, Ohio, a corporation of O 'o Application November 1, 1956, Serial No. 619,880

1 Claim. (Cl. 20678) The present invention relates as indicated to a hardware display card and more particularly, to a display card that mounts thereon and exhibits to view both the hardware and screws used therewith.

Hitherto, as disclosed, for example, in the Pat. No. 1,890,181, issued to L. N. Hoffman on December 6, 1932, and in the Pat. No. 2,456,332, issued to me on December 14, 1948, it has been proposed to mount hardware on the front flap of a folded card through the expedient of a staple that serves the additional function of holding the rear flap of the card in place to thus retain the screws in place, said screws, being poked through a corresponding number of holes in the front flap of the card adjacent the crease between the front and rear flaps. In hardware packages and displays of this type, the pointed ends of the screws are exposed and are held in perpendicular relation to the plane of the display card thereby increasing the thickness of the package and also entailing the danger of scratching furniture or the hands of persons handling the cards.

It has also been proposed by others to place the hardware and screws on a card and then by heat or equivalent means adhering a thin skin of plastic on the card and over the hardware and screws. A disadvantage of this method of packaging hardware is that it is costly and additionally, unless the rear side of the card is moistureproofed, said card warps or curls, due to atmospheric exposure. Another costly method of packing hardware, is the molding of a large size plastic bubble or blister that contains both the hardware and the screws, said blister being held between two pieces of cardboard glued together. The last-mentioned method of packaging renders the hardware and screws difiicultly accessible since the glued sheets have to be separated or the blister cut with a knife.

Accordingly, it is a principal object of this invention to provide a hardware package and display, that is economical to manufacture while yet the hardware may be easily removed simply by opening the staple and the screws are made readily available for dumping into the hand by unfolding the staple released rear flap.

It is another object of this invention to provide a hardware package and display in which both the hardware and screws are exposed to view and in which the screws are contained in a pouch of transparent material open at its rear side and containing the screws with their longitudinal axes generally parallel to the plane of the card proper.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent as the following description proceeds.

To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, the invention, then, comprises the features hereinafter fully described and particularly pointed out in the claim, the following description and the annexed drawings setting forth in detail a certain illustrative embodiment of the invention, this being indicative, however,

of but one of a few of the various ways in which the principle of the invention may be employed.

In said annexed drawing:

Fig. 1 is a front elevation view of a hardware displa card in accordance with the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a transverse cross-section view taken substantially along the line 22, Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a perspective viewshowing the dispaly card in its initial flat form, formed with a'crease line and having a screw pouch slipped into place so as ,to project through a slot formed in the front flap of the card.

Referring now more particularly to the drawings, the hardware package and display herein disclosed, comprises a generally rectangular piece of cardboard 1, or the like, formed with a crease line 2, thereacross along which the card is adapted to be bent to provide a front flap 3 and a rear flap 4. Adjacent said crease line 2 and parallel thereto, the front flap 3 is formed a rectangularslot 5, and in addition, said front flap 3 is formed with a pair of holes 6, 6 that register with holes formed in the hardware H to be mounted on said front flap.

Herein, the hardware H comprises a pair of mending plates that are longitudinally ribbed as shown, and that are formed with four, holes therethrough forscrews, one pair of holes registering with the pair of holes 6, 6 in the front flap 3 of said card 1.

Fitted into the rectangular slot 5 is a screw pouch, 7 which is formed with a laterally extending fiange 8 that overlies the rear side of said front flap 3 around the marginal edge of said slot 5. In the present case, it, is not necessary to cement or otherwise secure said pounch 7 in place, but instead merely to position the pouch so that its pocket 9 projects through the slot 5 and its flange 8 is against the rear side of said front flap.

With the pouch 7 thus positioned in the slot 5,- the card 1 may be transported to a screw counting anddisa pensing machine of any known type whereby, when the machine is operated, the required number of screws S are fed and dropped into the pocket 9 of said pouch. Obviously, the dispenser may be operated automatically in response to the movement of the card 1 underneath the dispensing spout. With the pouch 7 loaded with the required number of screws S, in this case eight, for the two mending plates, the rear flap 4 is folded over as shown in Fig. 2 and the staple 10 is inserted through paired holes 11, 11 in said rear flap 4 registering with the paired holes 6, 6 in the front flap 3. The hardware H, in this case a pair of mending plates, is then placed on the front flap 3 of the card 1 with the prongs of the staple extending through one pair of holes thereof, whereby said prongs may be bent over as shown in Fig. l, to secure the mending plates on the face of the card. The rear flap 4 closes the rear open side of the pouch 7 so that the screws S are retained in the pocket 9 and rendered visible together with the hardware H when the hardware display package is viewed from the front, as in Fig. 1.

It is to be noted that the screw pouch 7 is of generally rectangular form so that the screws S are retained therein with their longitudinal axes lying generally in planes parallel to the plane of front flap 3, and preferably the pouch 7 is of suflicient length and width so that the screws S may be disposed in parallel rows in end-to-end and side-by- Side relation. The pouch 7 is furthermore relatively shallow, less than the lengths of the screws S so that the longitudinal axes of said screws S will lie in planes parallel to the card 1. By reason of the form of the pouch 7 herein, that is, by providing a relatively wide flange 8 (for instance A") and by providing a generally rectangular pocket 9 (about A" x 2"), it has great strength even though made of thin, transparent plastic 3 material of .003"-.004" thickness. Thus, it is diflicult to inadvertent-1y dislodge -or to pull out the screw pouch 7 from the display card 1 and furthermore, by reason of the tapered sidewalls of the screw pocket 9, a secure grip thereon for pulling the pouch 7 out from the card 1;is prevented. Inthis :way, there is no danger of the screws or hardware being lost in handling or in transit. Preferably the width of the pouch 7 across 'flange 8 is about the same as the distance from crease 2 to holes 6 and the slot 5 has the same dimensions, as the pocket 9.

Another distinctive feature of the present invention is the mounting of thehardware H in a position such that it overlies one of the long flanges 8 of the pouch 7 to thus reinforce 'the display package against bending or bowing lengthwise of the pocket 9. By such reinforcement, the front rfiap 3 is held against bowing away from the rear flap 4 to form a gap through which the screws S might be lost.

It 'can be seen from the foregoing description that the hardware display package herein is of extremely simple structure and is economical to manufacture, the same comprising a perforated piece of cardboard 1, a staple 10, and a simple flanged screw pouch 7 made of thin, flexible, and transparent plastic material. In contrast to prior packages, it is unnecessary to provide large size bubbles for the hardware and screws with the added operation of gluing together two pieces of cardboard and thus rendering the hardware and screws inaccessible except by peeling or cutting apart the glued pieces of cardboard or cutting through the bubble. Likewise, the present invention presents a distinct advantage over those cards in which a film of plastic material is placed over the hardware and screws and is cemented to the card. There again, the tenacious plastic film is diflicult to puncture orcut and entails the possibility of marring the hardware. In addition, such skin packages may result in adherence of the film on the screws or on the hardware.

Other modes of applying the principle of the invention may be employed, change being made as regards the details described, provided the features stated in the following claim, or the equivalent of such, be employed.

I, therefore, particularly point out and distinctly claim as my invention:

A hardware package and display comprising a card folded upon itself to provide juxtaposed front and rear fiaps; a deformable staple having the prongs thereof ex tending through said flaps and through holes in an article of hardware formed with a longitudinal edge and positioned against said front flap, said prongs being bent laterally to hold said flaps together and to retain said hardware on .said front flap; said front flap, opposite said rear flap, being formed witha generally rectangular slot therethrough having one side disposed adjacent to suchlongitudinal edge of said hardware; and a transparent pouch containing screws for the hardware mounted on said front flap; said pouch having a portionthereof of generally the same size and shape as such slot and projecting through such slot and a relatively wide flange at its open rear side that is disposed between said flaps in overlying relation to the marginal edge of such slot, oneside of said flange being under said hardware adjacent to such edge whereby said card and said pouch are reinforced by said hardware against bending lengthwise of such edge, said pouch forming with said rear flap a closed pocket that is of depth less than the lengths of said screws for retaining said screws in place with their longitudinal axes lying in planes generally parallel to said card; said hardware and screws being readily accessible for use by unbending said prongs of said staple and by unfolding said rear flap whereby said hardware is released from said card and said screws may be dumped out of, or removed as needed from, the rear open side of said pouch.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,890,181 Hofiman Dec. 6, 1932 2,456,332 Seyforth Dec. 14, 1948 2,618,383 Chapman et al. Nov. 18, 1952 FOREIGN PATENTS 958,491 France Sept. 12, 1949 

